Media contact: Jason Welle, welle@stolaf.edu, Voice telephone: (507) 646-3834; fax: (507) 646-3033
March 1, 1999
For Immediate Release
Women's Basketball (17-4 MIAC; 18-6 O/A):
W, St. Thomas, 56-55
W, Augsburg, 84-78
Men's Swimming:
1st, MIAC Championships
Men's Track & Field:
Augsburg
Women's Track & Field:
3rd, UW-Stout
Men's Nordic Skiing:
4th, NCAA Qual, Giant's Ridge
Women's Nordic Skiing:
2nd, NCAA Qual, Giant's Ridge
Men's Alpine Skiing:
1st, Regionals, Marquette
Women's Alpine Skiing:
1st, Regionals, Marquette
Schedules:
Women's Swimming:
1st, Regionals, Marquette
Men's Swimming:
March 18-20, DIII Ntls, U of M
Nordic Skiing:
1st, Regionals, Marquette
Alpine Skiing:
Mar 10-14, Ntl Champs, Calif.
Men's Track & Field:
March 4, MIAC Pentathlon
March 5-6, MIAC Champ, U of M
Women's Track & Field:
March 4, MIAC Pentathlon
March 5-6, MIAC Champ, U of M
Men's Tennis:
March 6, UW-LaCrosse
Women's Tennis:
March 6, UW-LaCrosse
The Oles were ahead for the entire three-day contest and won by 187.5, accumulating 935.50 points. They were led by dual champions Ryan Palmer (champion in the 500-meter freestyle and swimmer's mile), Ryan Lussenden (200 individual medley and 200 breaststroke), Sean Krueger (100 backstroke and 200 backstroke) and Matt Walker (one- and three-meter diving). Out of 20 events, the Oles took first place in 10 individual races and two relays.
Gustavus Adolphus College finished second in the MIAC meet with 748 points. St. John's University was third with 483; Carleton was fourth with 304; the University of St. Thomas was fifth with 193.5; St. Mary's University was sixth with 157; Macalester was seventh with 126; and Hamline was eighth with 19.
Three Ole divers automatically qualified for the NCAA Division III Nationals Thursday through Saturday, March 18-20, at the University of Minnesota. Three other Ole swimmers and two relay teams are provisional qualifiers.
St. Olaf College's long MIAC streak began in 1980; St. Olaf also won the meet in 1977 and 1978. The victory continues a tradition of St. Olaf swimming dominance in the MIAC; on Feb. 20 the Ole women won the women's championship for the 12th time in the last 13 years.
Repeat Ole men's champions include Matt Walker (1998 one- and three-meter diving); Sean Krueger (1998 100 back champ); and Matt Hathaway (1998 100 butterfly champ).
Automatic NCAA Nationals qualifiers from St. Olaf include Walker (senior, Faribault, Minn.), Gabe Kortuem (sophomore, Andover, Minn.) and Kyle Rudser (FY, Northfield, Minn.), all in one-meter diving. Provisional NCAA qualifiers include Bo Connelly (FY, Hutchinson, Minn.) in the 50 freestyle; Tom Dow (FY, San Diego, Calif.) in the 400 individual medley; Krueger (senior, Shorewood, Minn.) in the 100 backstroke; and the 400 and 800 freestyle relay teams.
St. Olaf All-Conference swimmers include Ryan Palmer (sophomore, Roseville, Minn.), Ryan Lussenden (FY, Morris, Minn.), Chad Nelson (senior, Fergus Falls, Minn.), Greg Vogen (senior, Lakeville/Eagan, Minn.), Mark Wilterding (senior, Wilton, Conn.), Hathaway (senior, Lincoln, NE/Southeast), Connelly, Dow, Rudser, Kortuem, Krueger and Walker.
This year marks the 14th consecutive season in which Oles will participate at the National Championships, and will be the 21st appearance since St. Olaf first qualified in 1977. St. Olaf has finished as high as fourth place in the NCAA III national meet. The team is coached by Dave Hauck.
NORTHFIELD, Minn. -- The St. Olaf College women's basketball team won their final two games of the season last week, upsetting St. Thomas 56-55 Feb. 24 in Skoglund Athletic Center and defeating Augsburg 84-78 Feb. 26 in St. Paul during Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action
Despite a highly successful season (18-4 for third in the MIAC; 19-6 overall), coach Pat Buresh's team missed the selection for national tournament postseason play. (MIAC first- and second-place teams St. Benedict and St. Thomas were chosen.)
For coach Buresh, the St. Thomas victory was the first in her 11 years at St. Olaf. With 33 seconds remaining, St. Thomas' Missy Pederson (FY, Plymouth, Minn.) made two free throws to put the Tommies ahead by two. But with 6.1 seconds left, the Oles' Elisa Hatlevig (sophomore, Rushford, Minn.) converted a three-point play that gave St. Olaf the lead. The Oles cleanly blocked St. Thomas' last shot of the game, giving the Oles another major victory.
Hatlevig led the Oles in the highly physical game with 14 points and 6 rebounds. Erin Collins (senior, Kasson, Minn.) added 12 points on the strength of three important treys in the first half.
Leading scorers for St. Thomas were Pederson and Molly Hayden (junior, Eden Prairie, Minn.) with 13 points each.
On Feb. 26 the Oles overcame a 17-point deficit to defeat Augsburg by six points, capturing third place in the MIAC.
Six St. Olaf men and six women will travel to Mamouth Mountain to compete in the nationals. It will mark the 24th time in the last 25 years that the Ole men's and women's alpine teams have qualified for the national championships.
St. Olaf competitors captured first, second, third and fourth in each of the two women's events, and first in each of the two men's events. Both teams are coached by Paul Wojick.
In women's events St. Olaf was first, followed by Michigan State and the University of Minnesota. In men's events the first-place Oles were followed by Michigan Tech and the U of M. (U.S. Collegiate Ski Association competitions include NCAA Division I, II and III schools, with 264 teams participating nationwide.)
Both qualifiers and the alternate hail from Minnesota. Sarah Kueffer (senior, Shoreview, Minn.) and Sonja Bostrom (FY, St. Paul) will go to the NCAA Ski Championships March 11-13 in Lewiston, Maine. Margie Tilman (sophomore, St. Louis Park, Minn.) is an alternate; she will attend if one of the six female qualifiers from the Central Region can't compete.
Six men and six women from the Central Region are selected each year for the NCAA Ski Championships, encompassing Division I, II and III schools. Each college may qualify a maximum of three women and three men. St. Olaf has sent only two other skiers to the NCAA Championships in its entire Nordic skiing history (one of whom is Keuffer, who qualified last year).
Kueffer and Bostrom qualified while the St. Olaf women's and men's Nordic ski teams continued their winning ways during the regional championship and final NCAA Midwest Qualifier Feb. 20 and 21 at Giant's Ridge, Minn. Coach John Dyste's Ole teams placed second in the 15k women's classical, second in the 5k women's freestyle, fourth in the 20k men's classical and fourth in the 10k men's freestyle.
Only two schools qualified more skiers than St. Olaf: Northern Michigan University (six) and Green Bay University (three). Perpetually powerful University of Alaska -- a Central Region competitor -- qualified only one skier. St. Olaf is the only Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference school to qualify skiers for the nationals this year.
And if it were not for a flu epidemic, the Oles may have had one more qualifier. Andy Erickson (sophomore, Hopkins, Minn.) didn't ski in the first two NCAA Midwest Qualifiers because he was competing in Europe with the U.S. Biathalon Ski Team. When he returned to Minnesota, he fell ill with the flu, but on Feb. 21 at Giant's Ridge he had recovered sufficiently to place fifth in the men's 10k freestyle race.
Other Ole men and women also placed high in the four-meet qualifying competition. Sarah Kueffer's brother Fred (sophomore, Shoreview, Minn.) finished the four men's qualifying events ranked 11th. 'Fred was in the competition right up until the last race,' Dyste said. Brent Carlson (sophomore, Stillwater, Minn.) was 17th, and Kevin Hochtl (FY, Vail, Colo.) was 18th. Among the women, Hillary McCulloh (FY, St. Cloud, Minn.) was 13th; Heidi Goetze (junior, Zimmerman, Minn.) was 14th; and Dawn Youngren (sophomore, Edina, Minn.) was 15th.
On Feb. 20, in his final collegiate game (against Carleton), Herzog surpassed 1,000 career points, leading the Oles with 18 for a career total of 1,006. Herzog, who plays considerably taller than his 6-4, also grabbed nine rebounds against the Knights. On Feb. 17 against Hamline Herzog scored 14, on the heels of a 27-point performance Feb. 15 against Augsburg.
Herzog, an Ole co-captain who was All-Conference and MIAC All-Defense last season, is one of the MIAC's leading scorers, averaging 14.75 points per game. He also is the league's second-ranked assist leader, averaging 3.850 assists per game, and is a league rebound ace, averaging 7.050 per game.
Herzog also earned a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds against Carleton Jan. 20.
NORTHFIELD, Minn. -- St. Olaf College's women's indoor track and field team finished third among 10 teams in the University of Wisconsin-Stout Invitational Feb. 26.
The Oles tallied 126 points. The meet was won by University of Wisconsin-River Falls with 134; Gustavus was second with 126. St. Olaf was followed by UW-Stout, 110; Augsburg, 41; Carroll, 34; University of Wisconsin-Superior, 22; Hamline, 19; St. Catherine, 18; and St. Thomas, 4.
The top St. Olaf finishers included:
Long jump: 5. Sally Skurdahl, 4.8 m
High jump: 4. Leslie Nechville, 1.5 m; 8. Karen Jolivette, 1.4
Pole vault: 5. Jolivette, 2.13 m
55-meter dash: 3. Amanda Olson, :07.57
55-meter hurdles: 4. Angie Sprunger, :09.96; 5. Andrea Thompson,
:10.01
200 meters: 2. Olson, :27.06; 5. Amber Kidder, :27.64
400 meters: 4. Jamie McRaith, :61.06
600 meters: 1. Jayna Mathieu, 1:39.29; 4. Thompson, 1:42.16; 5. Emily
Walker, 1:47.31; 8. Kristine Larsen, 1:49.6
800 meters: 3. Cassie Thoen, 2:27.24; 4. Sara Daymont, 2:28.46
1,000 meters: 1. Megan Call, 3:08.53; 4. Katie Storlie, 3:12.18; 7.
Larsen, 3:22.89
3,000 meters: 2. Annie Sateren, 10:53.2; 3. Suzanne DePaulo, 10:53.47; 4.
Brigid Franey, 10:55.51; 5. Jenna Boren, 10:56.72; 7. Stacy DeRuiter,
11:36.07; 8. Beth Vasecka, 11:49.23
4 x 400 relay: 2. (Skurdahl, Olson, Thompson, McRaith), 4:09.08
On Thursday, March 4, the Ole women host the MIAC Pentathlon at 2 p.m. in Skoglund Athletic Center, and on Friday and Saturday, March 5 and 6, they travel to the University of Minnesota for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference indoor championship..
NORTHFIELD, Minn. -- the St. Olaf men's indoor track and field team hosted a scoreless dual meet against Augsburg Feb. 27, allowing the teams to improve their times and distances for the upcoming Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference meet.
Automatic Ole qualifiers for the MIAC meet include:
800 meters: 1. Mark Bresnan (sophomore, Indianola, Iowa), 1:56.14
High jump: 1. Cory Dingels (FY, Gibbon, Minn.), 64 1/4
Long jump: 1. Dingels, 21 6-3/4
Pole vault: 2. Andy Stark, 141 1/4
Shot put: 1. Jeff Flugum (FY, Burnsville, Minn.), 43 10 1/2
2-mile: 1. Peter Morse, 9:44.66
55-m high hurdles: 2. Olaf Siverson (junior, Maplewood, Minn.), :08.18
On Thursday, March 4, the Ole men host the MIAC Pentathlon at 2 p.m. in Skoglund Athletic Center, and on Friday and Saturday, March 5 and 6, they travel to the University of Minnesota for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference indoor championship..
St. Olaf is a four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with a student enrollment of 2,939 and a full-time faculty of 260. The college is nationally known for its art, music, science, pre-medicine, mathematics, pre-law, international studies and religion curricula. It ranks 13th on U.S. News & World Report's list of "best values" among national liberal arts colleges. It is one of Money Guide's top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation's colleges in number of students who study abroad.